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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24305431">Building Fires</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/pseuds/primeideal'>primeideal</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Book 13: Towers of Midnight, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:54:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,507</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24305431</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/pseuds/primeideal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Getting into the Tower of Ghenjei is hard enough. Preventing anyone else from coming along might be harder.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Building Fires</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You're going to need courage," said Olver.</p>
<p>"What?" Mat said. He was not a coward. Just because a fellow preferred preventing battles to leading them did not make him cowardly; it made him not a bloody fool!</p>
<p>"Courage to strengthen," said Olver. "That's the first step, the first rule of the game. Well, I have plenty of courage."</p>
<p>"I <em>will</em> play a game with you. Tonight. And Mistress Anan will as well. I'm not forgetting about you, Olver."</p>
<p>"Thom has music," he went on, "and anyone can get fire and iron, in a city. But courage? You need to pick the right people for that."</p>
<p>Mat sighed. "The snakes and foxes are dangerous, Olver. It's not a game. Did I ever tell you why I wear this scarf?"</p>
<p>"Because Lady Tuon thinks it looks handsome?"</p>
<p>"Never mind what Tuon thinks." The woman probably thought slave collars were attractive, too! "When Moiraine disappeared, everyone thought she was dead. And she's an Aes Sedai, she's strong in the One Power!" Olver had Joline and Teslyn as his images of Aes Sedai, he supposed, so they were not particularly inspiring. "Like Nynaeve and--Queen Elayne. Even she couldn't escape on her own."</p>
<p>"You won't be alone," said Olver. "You'll have me."</p>
<p>"If I came back without you, Mistress Anan would eat me for lunch." Even as he said this, he remembered the strange not-quite-leather the Eelfinn wore and shuddered.</p>
<p>"No she wouldn't," Olver said. "You'd taste like a midden heap."</p>
<p>Well, that did not settle him one bit. "Why don't you ask Thom whether he'll show you around the palace? Birgitte and Elayne will want to hear that I haven't been a bad influence on you."</p>
<p>"You're not a bad influence, Mat! Blood and ashes, you're a hero!"</p>
<p>"Don't swear in front of the Queen. Ladies don't like that sort of thing." Was Elayne really expecting <em>two</em> children? She was going to be bloody disappointed when she realized they did not always behave themselves. Then again, she had grown up with stiff-necks like Galad bloody Damodred; she probably expected the Dragon Reborn's children would be just as polite. Light, what a mess.</p>
<p>"I won't," said Olver. "But, Mat, you ought to get an iron weapon. I can watch over your spear, if you have too much to carry."</p>
<p>"Thank you," Mat said.</p>
<p>Compared to Olver, Aludra ought to have been reasonable. The woman was wise enough to understand the threat the Seanchan posed, and they were downright human compared to the snakes and foxes. The worst he had to fear was that she would try to charge him extra for some nightflowers, but he could always win it back if he needed to. Or she might try to steal a kiss in exchange for her supplies. Well, that was not--No. He was married. He would not be distracted by braids, by her beautiful dark braids that fell nearly to her waist. Certainly not.</p>
<p>"How was the queen?" Aludra asked, once he had made his way to her wagon.</p>
<p>"Accommodating," said Mat. "She'll want to see a test, to see how it's done, but if it works, she'll call upon Andor's bellfounders to work for you. The way she goes about it, she might give you Cairhien's as well."</p>
<p>Aludra smiled, as if the thought of having two nations' laborers at her beck and call was nothing out of the ordinary. "The test, it will go well. Thank you."</p>
<p>"Of course," Mat said. "And, I was wondering if you could spare me some firesticks. Maybe a couple of those exploding cylinders, too."</p>
<p>"The roarsticks? What do you want with those?"</p>
<p>"Ah, just to...scare off anyone who makes trouble. The way rumors get around about me, half this town thinks I'm Artur Hawkwing reborn and the other half thinks I murder Forsaken once a week. I'd rather not have to duel cutpurses if I can make a flash and shoo them away."</p>
<p>"Mat Cauthon, you are a very brave fellow, but if you were to light one of my roarsticks you would ruin your handsome face like as not." And what did she mean by <em>that</em>? "If you want to avoid common cutpurses, go and stay at the palace."</p>
<p>Where he'd only have to avoid bloody nobility playing at <em>Daes Dae'mar</em>. "I may need to leave town for a bit, Thom and myself. I'd feel safer knowing I had some of your weapons guarding me." Women liked hearing that sort of thing.</p>
<p>"And where are you sneaking off to that you cannot talk about, hmm?" asked Aludra. "You are not thinking of running away to see the Seanchan?"</p>
<p>"Blood and ashes, no."</p>
<p>"<em>Do</em> you have a Forsaken to murder?"</p>
<p>"Let's hope not," said Mat. Light, Moiraine had hurled <em>Lanfear</em> into the twisted doorway! If she was still alive in the land of the Eelfinn, couldn't Lanfear be too?</p>
<p>"Me, once I have met with the queen, I will not need to supervise every one of the dragons," said Aludra. "Let me come with you. I can light them myself."</p>
<p>"Ahhh," said Mat. "I'd feel safer with you around, too, but you can't come."</p>
<p>"And why is that?"</p>
<p>Could negotiating the terms of the dragons with Elayne really have been the easier part of the deal? "I'll tell you, but you keep this between us. I don't want you giving Olver something to chatter about."</p>
<p>"Your secrets are safe with me, Mat." He wished she did not look so near his scarf when she smiled.</p>
<p>"There's an Aes Sedai in danger. The woman who showed up on my doorstep before--all this began, when Rand and I were still in the Two Rivers. We thought she was dead, but apparently she's had visions of how to get out. It'll only work if Thom, Noal, and I come. Well, uh, Thom, myself, and another man. No more and no fewer. I suppose women are poor luck in--in that place. So you see, I'd bring you along if I could, but then we'd all be blown to bits."</p>
<p>"Very specific visions, these."</p>
<p>"Aes Sedai business." Mat shrugged. "I don't make it a point to learn the details."</p>
<p>"If your silly villager honor prohibits you from bringing a woman into danger, Mat, you can just <em>say</em> so."</p>
<p>"She's already in danger, a whole bloody cookpot of it!"</p>
<p>"Not your Aes Sedai friend, me!"</p>
<p>"Aludra, it's not--I can't--Look, I'm married."</p>
<p>"And what has that to do with anything, hmm? I said I want to help you, not to offend the Daughter of the Nine Moons' honor."</p>
<p>"Well, you can't. That's just how the prophecy or somesuch goes."</p>
<p>"It said it needs to be you, Thom, and one other man, going into some peril you can barely speak of?"</p>
<p>"Yes," said Mat. Maybe she was starting to understand.</p>
<p>"Noal is a very entertaining man, and he has seen much of the world. But would you choose him over a haler young man? Or perhaps--there are those Asha'man near here."</p>
<p>"Burn me if I know, it's Thom's bloody letter."</p>
<p>"Thom, he is leading this little band? Perhaps I will need to talk with him."</p>
<p>"You're welcome to," Mat said shortly. Let Thom have the challenge of shutting her up.</p>
<p>"Where exactly is this lady, that you refuse to bring more than three, but think roarsticks will do you good?"</p>
<p>"I told you, it has to be three--"</p>
<p>"The prophecies, yes. What use do you think roarsticks will be?"</p>
<p>"Listen, if you can't spare them, just say so. I won't be offended."</p>
<p>"With Queen Elayne's favor, I can spare all that three men can carry."</p>
<p>Mat sighed. "You know about snakes and foxes?"</p>
<p>"Olver has requested I play once or twice, yes."</p>
<p>"They're real. I mean, not the game, but there are real bloody snakes and foxes out--<em>somewhere</em>. Another world, not like ours. The last time I saw them, they almost killed me, and they gave me the flaming scar on my neck. I don't know if we can get Moiraine out, but if there's a chance, the only way is to break the rules. Fire to blind, and all the rest. Now I'm sure you have more than enough courage for the both of us, but I don't know how to bottle that up and carry it in."</p>
<p>Aludra smiled. "Another world, is it? Why did you not say so in the first place?"</p>
<p>"Because you'd think I'm even more of a fool than the folk in Caemlyn already do."</p>
<p>"Matrim Cauthon, I would not think you a fool even if you blinded yourself with a roarstick."</p>
<p><em>Half the light of the world.</em> Light, she couldn't have known! "Well, I may come back and hold you to that."</p>
<p>"Please do," she said.</p>
<p>He made a show of looking at her inventory, trying to gauge how much he could carry along with his iron weapons and whatever low-quality instruments Thom trusted him enough to spare. He would <em>not</em> be distracted by her braids.</p>
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